TX to CO, The Woodlands to Keystone

[Duke]

I hit the wrong button again... sorry!

Ok back to the story!

Day 2... I ended up staying bed much later than I thought I would. Guess I was more tired that I thought... or is it lazy??? Any way, I get the bike packed up again (have I mentioned that I LOVE THIS BIKE) and head out.

OH.. By The Way... this is an ugly butt pad, but IT WORKS and I highly recommend it to anyone not ready to pull the trigger on a custom saddle.

Now where was I.... Oh yeah leaving the Best Western in Childress. I hit the road at a bright and early time of 10:30..., and start to make it up to Amarillo for lunch. Drove through a couple more nice older towns that time seems to move slower in.

Hall County Courthouse - Memphis, TX

This is the towns square on a Saturday... can only imagine what rush hour must be like!

Kept on 287 north...

Then came to the town of Clarendon.

Donely County Courthouse..

In Clarendon there is also this HUGE Methodist Church, which is larger than the courthouse. I actually thought this was the court house when I saw it in the distance and started to navigate my way to it...

Then on to Claude in Armstrong County... where there was a gathering at the county square, arts and crafts stuff it looked like, I just kept riding.

I stop for lunch and then make my out to the buried Caddy's!

I get back off of the interstate at the town of Vega and point the bike towards Dalhart...

Oldham County Courthouse

While in Vega though I saw this nice little bit of history preserved from Historic Route 66.

I quit playing tourist in Vega and get back on the hard stuff and I wish that I could say that it was an interesting ride up to Dalhart... but... judge for your self...

What I can say that was interesting or at least entertaining was that the clouds were starting to get closer together and when I looked the the GPS... it was clear that I was going to get wet this day... But little did I know (more on that later).

I make it to Dalhart! First time I have ever been here...

XIT Ranch Memorial / Historical marker for the open range Cowboys... 3,000,000 Acres... geez this ranch was big!

And then on to ....

Where it appears that my GPS is going to be correct.. I am going to get wet!

Y'all it was nasty out.. the temp fell QUICKLY and the wind was gusting terribly but there was no where to go, and then the hail started to fall...and the lighting flashing in the distance (well not that far away) and the thunder so loud that your heart skipped a beat when it clapped, that was fun! I know I should have just stopped but I was in a way having fun doing something that I knew I shouldn't have been doing! I eventually make it to Raton Pass, NM where I take shelter and meet up with a bunch of riders from Corpus Christi... a real nice bunch of riders at that!

The weather lets up to just a steady / medium rain and I continue on to Walsenburg, CO where I found this quaint little motel.

Where I park the bike for the day and take a much needed WARM shower and a HEATER! Going from 90+ degree weather to being in the 40's and soaking wet makes this guy pretty cold. I love my heated grips but I needed a heated body suit after being soaked to the core! Man I am Having Fun!

Route for this day.... So far, just under a thousand miles since I left home.

 

[Duke]

Day 3!

I woke up early this morning as I had a couple of objectives to complete prior to making my destination of Keystone. I was going to climb a mountain, and play on sand dunes... sounds like fun right?

Anyway, I left my hotel for the night after having a cup of coffee with the owner of the place and his little house dog.. where we watched the news and learned of all the flooding that had taken place in south eastern colorado the past 24 hours... some of it very severe.

And made my way southwest towards Mt. Blanca....

It was still pretty overcast which made mountain veiwing difficult but it was fun to be on roads that actually changed elevations. I turn off of hwy 160 onto county roads that would take me up the hill and had an blast.. sorry not many pictures I was having fun, having traveled over 1000 miles on the pavement to be able to get to play on dirt roads in the morning after a rain... FUN!

You can see where water ran across the road which in this spot wasn't that bad, but as I went further up the road, believe me it got much worse and the road got alot more muddy and it was work to keep the bike upright... but it was FUN. I eventually turn around and make my way towards the Sand Dune park where there too the park service had closed the park road due to weather conditions.... I was kinda miffed at that and left without the obligatory picture of the bike infrom the the sign, oh well NEXT TRIP!.

Thanks to yall that posted in this thread earlier, I decided to head over to the Royal Gorge Park...

Made my way back across county roads WHICH WAS FUN... Muddy... Dirt Roads, I had a ball..., Back over to Hwy 69, came out in the town of Gardner... not much here, but did see this interesting old building. And got into another brief rain that washed the bike off for me

The scenery from Hwy 69 was really enjoyable.

I even saw this funny looking cow..

Anyway I keep heading up CO 69 trying to get to CO 50....

Which I eventually achieve. Directly across from the intersection of CO69 & CO50 is this place

Where I eat this

And meet this couple

Yep you are not seeing things.. that is a Husband and Wife riding two up on a KLR 650... from eastern Oklahoma! Nice couple, we chatted a bit and then went on our way, they were heading to Leadville me... The Royal Gorge Bridge!

I ride CO50 (great road!) and turn on CR3 where I am promptly stopped and told that the road is closed to through traffic... If am wanting to see the bridge please go to other entrance and am give a coupon for $7.00 off admission... I say thank you and back track to CO50 and go east. I turn on CR3 again and make my way towards the park where the traffic is terrible... but at least we are moving. I pull up to the park and as I was preparing to take a picture of the entrance a rider on a VSTORM waves me forward and I follow him through the gate... not sure what just happened but neither he or I paid a penny to get in, we both head out onto the bridge where I stop and he rode off... Never did get to thank him!

This is a really neat bridge... the harmonics that is created by the wind and the pedestrian traffic is a ride all by itself. Thanks for the tip for the side trip it was really worth it!

So I leave the park and make my way back a couple of miles to CO9 and head north. I am nearing the end of my destination leg of this trip and of course what was worrying me prior to leaving Houston has found me. At least I only have a 100 or so miles to go to my stopping point.

I am officially riding in the mountains now and even though it is a little wet for last few miles to Keystone (ok some hard rains but they didn't last long) I am seeing some beautiful scenes...

Shameless photo op...

That was the last picture for Sunday as it was pouring buckets when I got to the condo's... But this is where I ended up having to work the next 3 days.... The great towns of Keystone & Breckenridge, CO

I left Keystone Wednesday afternoon to head over to my office and to play at some of our worksites in the western part of the state.... Which I will call my return leg... Check back later for it.

Thanks for taking a look!

Duke

 

[Tourmeister]

Great pics. Love all the courthouse shots. Seeing the mountains really gets me worked up to go back...

 

[Duke]

Thanks Scott...

Putting it all together as a ride report is taking longer than I expected... I am still organizing the pics that I took of the return leg through the Colorado National Monument, The BMW Ralley, and the ride home.....

Hope to have it up before the weekend.

Cheers!

 

[Hairsmith]

Fantastic !

Glad to see you enjoyed the

 

[FirstMan]

Great job. I am now excited about my trip in September.

 

[Riding Texas]

Duke looks like you had a great trip! We went last summer. I would like to talk Rita into an Adventure so we could hit some fire roads and some of the none paved passes. It is hard to take a bad picture up there.
Steve

 

[Duke]

Well back to the ride report...

I had to spend a couple of days in meetings before I could hit the road again. I ended up leaving early out of our afternoon meeting Wednesday July 12th.

So i leave Keystone around 3pm and hit the big road west bound to go act like I work for a living...

Here is my route for this afternoon.

My goal this day was to get to a hotel on Parachute, CO after making a couple of stops off at a few of my Drilling Rigs working in the area.

Just a couple of scenic pics from west bound I-70.

Getting close to the canyon around Glenwood Springs, CO

Entering the canyon....

Just having fun in the multiple tunnels along this route...

I eventually make it to Rifle and Silt and visit a couple of rigs... Had a nice ride up lease roads to our rigs locations...Finally my Recreation gets to meet my Vocation!

That is pretty much how I ended my day Wednesday. I visited 3 of our rigs and made it to the hotel in Parachute around 10pm or so.

On to Thursday, July 13!

I awoke this morning and after a couple of cups of coffee and phone calls as I am back being a work again, I hit the road. I went up to a Rig for a little while and then decided to head over to my office in Fruita. Got a little side tracked along the way and took a left turn up to the Grand Mesa....

This is the begining of HWY 65 south of I-70 heading towards Snowmass and the Grand Mesa... The cliffs are huge and the road is full of hair pins and sweepers, what a treat.

It was so much fun that I went back all the way to I-70 the way I came. Passed and got passed by many sport bikes that were out having some fun to.

I make it to my office and wave the corporate flag a then take some of my team to lunch and then head out to here;

I played tourist quite a bit and while riding the rim road through the park I came upon a dirt road... to I turned right and followed it a little ways and then turned into what appeared to be a parking area to get a bottle of water out of my cooler... While taking a look around I was really tempted to take the beast off down this trail,

but being that NOBODY knew where I was and not really sure just how EXTREME the trail would become I decided against it. The comment about Steep Grades and Rocky Terrain made me question my ability. But I will be back and ride it on a smaller bike some day. The rattle snake arches is something that I would like to take a look at.

From there I proceeded to leave the park and I am now officially starting to head back towards the house, having reached my furthest point away at this parking lot. Its all down hill from here!

The last tunnel I will see this trip, this was kind of a surprise, as I rounded one of the many hair pin turns going down from the monument you litterally exit the turn into the entrance of the tunnel.

I leave Grand Junction an start making my way to Delta where I plan on turning east and head towards the BMW Ralley in Paonia.

I make to Paonia and the Rally, but as this is Thursday, I am thinking that I am arriving with the Early Birds...

I hang out a little and checked out some of the vendors and then pulled the GPS off the bike and tried to figure out just where I am going to call it a night at tonight..... hmmmm... couldn't make my mind up so I just start to drive in a south west fashion and figured when I get tired I find a spot.

I head east on HWY 92 (I Highly recommend it!) towards CR12 where I will head south.

I thought that I took more pictures of HWY92, but I guess I was having too much fun. Here is where I turned off onto CR12

Which quickly turns to dirt...

This is a beautiful hard packed well maintained road with NO traffic on it and the views are stunning everywhere you look.

While riding along I passed a little National Forest sign pointing down a little road to "Lost Lake". This was a Bonus! Even if there were some road hazards along the way...

While coming down from the nice mountain lake I took to exploring some of the smaller roads/trails just to see where they went.

Check out this cabins view...

I head back to CR12 and start to make my way off the mountain.

I eventually ended up in this little town...

I leave Crested Butte and take 135 south down towards Gunnison

I get back on HWY 50 for a little ways and then turn right onto HWY 114 where I am greated to this sign which did not accurately display the truth...

It should have said the next 75 miles!

It is along this road that I get to see this fine pair of Elk

When I get to Saguache, CO I pick up HWY 285 which outside of it running straight through this really big rock,

was by far one of the most boring, staightest roads that I have ever driven, but I have been in the saddle for a while this day and was determined to get to Monte Vista to call it a night, which I eventually did.

This was actually my favorite ride day of the entire trip, I think next year I am going to bring my tent with me and camp in the BLM land or National Forest land only CR12 or HWY 114, beautiful scenery and perfect temps!

Even though I put a lot of miles under me this day and did not stay in 1 place too long, I still think that I got to see alot and experience the pleasures that riding a bike in the mountains offers. The rest of my ride home the scenery is not nearly as spectacular but I did get to see some pretty neat stuff. Check back as I still want to share my visit with an old steam train and a really big bridge.

Duke

 

[Duke]

It has taken me much longer than I wished to get this ride report finished, back to it....

It is now Friday, July 14th and I am on my return home. I called it quits Thursday in Monte Vista, CO after several hours in the saddle and seeing some beautiful country side from high desert canyons to alpine forests, it was a great ride. Today I planned on getting to I-20 somewhere in Texas, I ended up making it a fair bit further, San Angelo.

The drive south out of Monte Vista was really uneventful, I took 160 to 285 and I think that the only turn I took in 100 miles was the turn off of 160 to 285. However when I was coming into the little community of Antonio, CO just north of the NM border I was in for a treat, these were right next to the road and you could walk up and touch em and the conductor was even letting kids hop up to blow the whistle.... I really wanted to to that but I am a 30 something and couldn't stand myself to cut in line with all the 10 year olds. Did I say that I really want to pull the string????

 

[Duke]

Dang'it... hit the wrong button again, allow me to continue...

This train had the fires stoked with coal and was pressured up... I was really impressed by the heat that was coming off of it, not sure how the engineer is able to stand being in the cab all day, it was HOT!

All you hear while you standing near it is the sound of steam releasing from different relief valves and alot of hissing! It was great. I must have taken 50 pictures while I was standing around it.

They had this other one stacked out on the other side of the road....

I think the stencil on this box car sums it up pretty good.

I know where the Royal Gorge is, but what is the tunnel that is also mentioned?

I got back onto 285 and kept heading south, it is somewhere between the train station and the NM border that I decide to venture off on some trails on BLM land...

Happened upon this old Cemetary with dates from the mid 1800's on the head stones...

and just beyond the rise behind the Cemetary is this surprise..

I make my way back to the big road again and keep rolling, and it is not too long before I find NM...

And since it was pooring buckets when I entered CO, I had to get this shot...

Not too much to brag on for several miles, and I see a sign for Taos, so I turn left for a little detour, as I remember from that last time I was up this way I did not make it to the Rio Grand Bridge near Taos...

For those that like bridges...

I make it to Taos and head over to the Pueblo...

But unfortunately they were filming a movie or something and for this day tours were closed, but I could come back tomorrow???? Oh well... It is lunch time anyway time to keep heading south.

I head down to the town square...

Did the Griswald thing and then left.

After a quick bite on the south side of town I plot out a route to Roswell, NM. I end up taking a fantastic road, HWY 518!

I find myself for a brief while on Route 66,

and it is starting to get warm... not scratch that... HOT!

Go even further south it gets hotter...

And when I finally get into Roswell, it is time to get off the bike and take a break for a while, as this was the temp...

This was my first trip to Roswell... For some reason or another I was thinking that it was just a little bitty town, but it is a thriving city. Yes there were many little trinket shops that were selling alien stickers and stuffed creatures. I even hung out in there musuem (psuedo musem at that) on thier main street to enjoy some air conditioning. After a couple bottles of water and a sweet snack I head out on HWY 380 where I enjoy a brief sand storm.... I know others say this all the time, but these pictures don't do this justice.

Eventually I see a friendly sign!

By this time I have already ridden over 500 miles today and it appears that I did not take any pictures from the state line to San Angelo, total miles today was just a little over 700, the longest that I have ridden on the new bike yet. I got a room a the Hampton Inn around 930pm which had a IHOP in its parking lot practially. I went over for a late dinner where I think that I drank 8 tall glasses of water! I was still thirsty when when I went to bed finally.

I am now on the last day of my ride. San Angelo - The Woodlands!

This is the Mcculloch County Courthouse and historic jail which I think was in Brady, TX....

And Mason's County Courthouse in Mason, TX

I then head on into Fredricksberg....along with everybody else..

I make the obligated stop in Luckenbach, TX. Where they say everybody is somebody... I have since made my own opinion

I then ride FM 1888 (I think) to Blanco where I stop for lunch.

Made a couple of stops along the way...

Blanco's Court House

LUNCH

I road along from Blanco on FM Roads to San Marcos where I picked up HWY 21 to HWY 290... getting close to home now!

I couldn't pass up the photo op that the Court House in Giddings provided...

When I got to Brenham I thought I would stop here to get a free sample... but unfortunately they were closed...

I end up riding 290 to Hempsted then make my way over 1488 to The Woodlands... (man this road is bad in the afternoons). I think that it would have been easier if I went on 2920 into Tomball... The cage traffic really scared me this Saturday afternoon, and being so close to home I was really stressed for this last few miles.

But alas, I make it to the house no worse for wear....

Having driven 2865.9 miles per my speedo, and 2884 per the GPS....

This was a great warm up ride for my trip starting Aug 25th this year which will be in excess of 7000 miles.

I learned that the GS is not as comfortable as my old GL1800/Wing, but it is fine for 300/400 miles. It is the last 300 miles of a day that start to get to me, but I think that I can mitigate that to my satisfaction.

Although this bike will never be a "dirt bike", it is exactly what I wanted, it is a bike that lets me take the road less traveled to see just what is over the next rise, be it a gravel road, twin path trail, or super slap.

I LOVE THIS BIKE

Thanks to all that take the time to read my long posts.. but I have throughly enjoyed reading all of y'alls and want to contribute as well.

Cheers
Duke

 

[donroger1]

The railcar "logo" shows:

Royal Gorge and the Moffat Tunnel

http://colorado.railfan.net/moffat/moff1.html

Incredible photos and great ride report......

 

[Duke]

The railcar "logo" shows:

Royal Gorge and the Moffat Tunnel

http://colorado.railfan.net/moffat/moff1.html

Incredible photos and great ride report......

Thanks!

I wonder if this tunnel if viewable from a bike or if it is just a memory now an days?

I am going to go read your link now...

Thanks for the kind words.. I enjoyed putting them up, but not as much as taking them!

 

[Georgiapeach]

Duke! It wouldn't be a ride report from you if it didn't include TRAINS!, he, he.
Hey, I still want to go to Woodville with you, but it's too hot now...when it cools off this Fall maybe? Save me a dance.

 

[Gilk51]

Thanks!I wonder if this tunnel if viewable from a bike or if it is just a memory now an days?

I believe it is still in use - western portal is just outside the Winterpark ski area & on the main line line from Denver to san Fransisco. It is on my "must ride" list for someday (the train, of course).

great report and photos!

 

[Duke]

Georgia... Its a Date! I too am wanting to ride the ghost towns that you plotted, just don't lead me into any speed traps

Thanks for the info on the Tunnel, Chuck... I also did a google search on the train that I saw and it turns out that it runs daily between Antonio, CO and Champa, NM... If y'all have MS Streets and Trips zoom in on the rail line, it looks fantastic.

Copied from thier web site...
http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/

Built 126 years ago and little changed since, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is a 64-mile, fully operational steam railroad jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico. The railroad operates passenger trains seven days a week from Saturday, May 27 to Sunday, October 15.

The C&TS is recognized around the world for its spectacular scenery and unspoiled vistas, as well as the historic rolling stock and railroad structures that are preserved on the line. Many of the buildings and railroad equipment date to the turn of the twentieth century or earlier, making the C&TS the best preserved steam era railroad in North America.

“One of the best 20 railway experiences
in the world”

 

[Hairsmith]

Great Report !

And to think you were worried about a little rain, and almost did not ride the bike! Rain is only wet.